After weeks of threats, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Wednesday subpoenaed the Justice Department, demanding any e-mails to or from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove involving the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.

Leahy also wants the Justice Department to turn over all Rove e-mails it has related to the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame. Rove was not charged in that case. But Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury.

Additionally, Leahy wants any Justice Department materials related to the evaluation or dismissal last year of the eight prosecutors and any documents from the White House linked to those firings. Leahy is also seeking information from the Justice Department on its hiring and firing policies for career and political appointees.

Leahy has given Attorney General Alberto Gonzales until May 15 to comply with the subpoena or appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain why he won't. Gonzales, who has come under pressure from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to step down over the prosecutor firings, is already scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on May 10.

Leahy, in a letter to Gonzales, indicated the senator is clearly unsatisfied with the materials that have so far been released to congressional investigators.

"Indeed, despite multiple requests for the department to produce documents voluntarily related to the committee's investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys and politicization at the department, the department's production of documents has been selective and incomplete," Leahy wrote.

"Many documents have been withheld or redacted without any legal basis being set forth," he said. "In addition, to date, the department has yet to provide the committee with the precise scope of the production, any assurance that a preservation order was issued to prevent the loss or destruction of documents, and a complete privilege log that provides the basis for withholdings and redactions.''

The subpoena directs the Justice Department "to produce any and all e-mails and attachments to e-mails to, from or copied to Karl Rove related to the committee's investigation into the preservation of prosecutorial independence and the Department of Justice's politicization of the hiring and firing and decision-making of United States attorneys, from any (1) White House account, (2) Republican National Committee account or (3) other account in the possession, custody or control of the Department of Justice."

Leahy was referring to RNC e-mail accounts used by Rove and about four dozen other White House officials for what were supposed to be purely political activities, although several congressional committees have uncovered evidence that Bush administration staffers might have used the RNC accounts to bypass presidential record-keeping requirements.

White House officials have also said that several million e-mails from internal White House computer servers may have been lost -- including some Rove e-mails involving the prosecutors' dismissals -- but they are working to recover them.

Rove's lawyer, however, has said that special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, as part of his Libby probe, received a copy of all Rove's e-mails, and Leahy noted that in the documents accompanying his subpoena. Leahy wants those materials now from Gonzales.

The Justice Department said it had received Leahy's subpoena and was still evaluating it. But Justice spokesman Dean Boyd said the department had complied with document requests from congressional investigators, including Leahy's panel.

"The Justice Department has already turned over more than 6,000 pages of documents and e-mails to House and Senate committees and voluntarily provided Congress with hours of interviews of several senior Justice Department officials," said Boyd. "Furthermore, the attorney general last month provided six hours of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee."

A Justice Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, insisted that the department is not withholding or refusing to release any Rove e-mails.

"We don't have Karl Rove e-mails" related to the U.S. attorney firings, the official said.

The official also said that Leahy would have to get Rove's e-mails uncovered during the Plame investigation from Fitzgerald, not from the department itself.

"Fitzgerald is the attorney general for anything related to Plame," the official said. "Leahy has to deal with them directly on that issue."

But a Senate Judiciary Committee staffer said that Gonzales, as "attorney general of the whole Justice Department, should be able to turn over" those materials.

"We asked for those e-mails and got nothing," the staffer said. "We wrote a letter and got nothing. Now we have been forced to issue a subpoena."